Only 24 of the 36 candidates in Pune Lok Sabha constituency turned up to collect their identity cards issued by the returning officer on the eve of the elections. With three Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), two of them with names of 15 candidates each and one with six, being used voters are going to face a tough time to search for their candidates. Anticipating a longer than normal stay at the booth by the voter, the election office has advised the candidates to tell the voters which voting machine their names are listed in to avoid confusion and delay.

“The election office of each constituency has to issue identity cards to all the candidates on demand. The identity cards are given to candidates to conveniently monitor the polling as well as counting process by freely moving in the polling booth,” R N Joshi, Returning Officer for Pune Lok Sabha constituency, said.

The election office has prepared the identity cards, he said. “We cannot go and distribute the identity cards to every candidate and it is for the candidate to collect it in the election office. Only 24 of the 36 candidates have collected the identity cards till now”, Joshi said after winding up action for the day. All the prominent candidates have collected their identity cards; the 12 who have not bothered to collect the I-cards are independent candidates.

Meanwhile, the election office has informed the candidates to specify to the voters where their names are displayed on the EVMs to avoid confusion and delay tomorrow. Three EVMs in each polling counter is definitely going to add to the average time spent by the voter at polling counters if they are not aware of the listing of candidates on the EVMs, Joshi said.

“There is no stipulated time frame that has been laid down by the election commission for the voters to stay put at the polling counter to cast their vote. We are anticipating a longer stay by voters in casting their vote because of the number of contestants and have urged the candidates to specifically tell the voters about where their names are displayed and on which EVM,” he added.